Eleanor's POV:

I'd passed the three week marker. The effects of taking sedatives and getting only food enough for one meal a day were starting to take their toll on me. I'd lost a ton of weight, and not is a good way. I felt like I was anorexic, except I wanted to eat. Essy kept offering me her food because she didn't want to eat, but I flatly refused.

I'd come to the conclusion that she was crazy. It wasn't a bad thing, just I think she'd been locked up in here so long she'd become delusional. There was no way she'd had Niall Horan's daughter. Niall didn't have a daughter.

But the more she talked about Niall, the more confused I got. She seemed to know everything about him. Maybe she was just a really, really big fan. Maybe the drugs we kept getting injected with were affecting her brain.

She was like a skeleton, a beautiful, beautiful skeleton. But there was so much about her I didn't understand. Like why the hell she hadn't tried to escape. There had to be a way out of this god forsaken place.

"Essy?" I said abruptly.

"El?"

"Why d'you never try and get out of here?" I asked.

She looked up at me. Again she was lying on the floor. I was pacing back and fourth across the chamber.

"Why would I bother?" She sighed. "There's no way out. I tried the first week I was here, but then I thought why even try. My parents abandoned me when they found out I was pregnant, so I moved to England to try and find Niall. Never could. I was staying a shelter before I gave birth to my daughter in England. Then a few weeks later I got kidnapped. I have no idea where she is now, and until you came I had no idea where Ni was. My parents will never talk to me again. So why try and get out? Why not just kill myself?"

I stared at her, feeling my heart break. "Kill yourself?" I breathed.

"Oh trust me I tried," she laughed mechanically. "But there's nothing down here to kill myself with. I tried to stop eating, but he makes me eat. And every girl who comes down here makes me eat. And I tried to piss him off, and get him to kill me like he does to everyone else. But he just loves torturing me. So no deal."

I felt my eyes starting to tear up at the matter of fact way she was talking.

"But I could help you get out," I whispered. "I'm dating Lou, I could take you to talk to Niall. I could help you find your daughter. You could live with me."

She stared at me, and laughed sourly. "No, no. I'd much rather just die now."

I stared back at her. She'd rolled over to face away from me. Her hair almost reached down to her knees now, it was insane. And not a single split end. Even though we had the shittiest shampoo I'd ever know to exist, it still looked like she had a personal stylist come down and do her hair every day. I knew I looked awful.

And she was so skinny and small, and frail, her wrists covered in scars and her perfect pale skin covered in bruises from years of torture. She seemed to have lost every will to live, but here she was.

No offense, but if Niall had really abandoned her how she said, then he was a dick.

The locks on the door clicked, and he came in. I backed into a corner, fearful. It couldn't be night time already.

Essy didn't move. I knew she'd heard him come in, he was so loud, but she seemed not to give two shits.

I envied her calm.

"Essence, get up," he snarled.

She rolled over and stared at him with glazed eyes.

"What," she sighed.

"What's got you all bitchy today," he sneered.

Something caught my eye as he resumed his usual insults. His knife had fallen out of his back pocket.

My eyes flew to the closed door. The locks. If I could get his knife, we could carve the locks out of the door when he wasn't home, and escape.

He was still yelling at Essence, who looked supremely unconcerned for someone being screamed at by a murderer and kidnapper who'd been raping and torturing her for the past six years.

"YOU NEED TO START EATING, OR IM GOING TO COME DOWN HERE AND KILL YOU!" He snarled.

"KILL ME!" She shot back, bristling. "YOU OF ALL PEOPLE KNOW I. DON'T. CARE."

"You're the same bitch you we're ten years ago," he hissed, his lip curling.

"Yeah, Jeremy, back when I used to kick your ass because you didn't have fancy drugs or soundproof holding chambers," she sneered.

I crawled forward. Essence had his full attention now, and if I didn't get the knife, we'd lost all our chances.

"Still trying to protect your precious Horny, are you?" He spat. "Well he's got new mates now, doesn't he? He doesn't care about you anymore. The only reason he talked to you before was because you were the only one who'd talk to him. And now he's got new friends, and new girlfriends, who are better than you. He doesn't give shit about you."

She looked like he'd just slapped her in the face. It was the first time she'd shown any emotion to him at all, form the time I'd been here.

I reached it and snatched up the knife, stuffing it in my back pocket. He didn't notice.

"Well, no one gave a shit about you, ever," she whispered. "Nobody loved you ever, and nobody ever will! You. Little. Shit."

"What did you just call me?" He said, his voice, dangerously soft. I backed away into the corner again. I thought about just stabbing him, but that seemed too obvious. He probably had a metal vest on underneath his shirt or something. And then he'd be pissed and kill me.

"I called you a shit, Jeremy. You were always, always a loser. You thought you were the biggest, baddest, bully in the playground, and you let a little girl beat you up. An then for revenge you had someone else kidnap me, years later, because you couldn't do it. And you use drugs to keep me from beating you up again. And you think you're a big mass murderer don't you? But you're not. You're just a scared. Little. Boy."

He stared down at her. I didn't even dare to breathe. I was pretty sure she'd crossed the line.

He kicked her in the stomach, and she curled up into a fetal position, her face screwed up in pain.

"I'll come back for you tomorrow evening," he whispered. "I think it's time I finally disposed of you after all. I've only been keeping you around because you went to school with me. But that's done now."

She laughed croakily. "You've been keeping me around because you're in love with me, and you know it."

He kicked her again, and without another word, fled from the chamber.

I stared Essy. She was still lying on the ground crumpled in a ball. And for the first time, I saw a single tear trickle down her cheek.

Notes

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